PRINCE kicked off his "Welcome 2 Chicago" shows with Questlove and George Lopez getting shout outs.

One person who most likely did not want to get a shout out at an NPG show; the person in charge of the house sound.

I got several tweets about the sound at the United Center and this was expressed to me;

"Prince's management would like to apologize for any discrepancies in the quality of the sound last night.

Personnel changes were made after the concert hence the long delay after the show. (Equipment was set up very late at the House Of Blues Afterjam because of this. Andy Allo took the stage at 3 a.m. and the police were shutting down the venue around 3:30 before Prince & The NPG could perform.) Everyone could tell Prince & The NPG were ready to give 150%, They are feverishly working on Prince's clone as well to give 150%.

Prince LOVES all his fans in Chicago and will do whatever is necessary to bring the best possible experience."

Wow. I would not want to be around Prince right now. That totally SUCKS for those in attendance at both shows! I will be surprised if these next 2 shows and afterjams do not kick some major tail.-DocFB

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As a long-time fan (this was my 7th or 8th show) who was there last night (and am going on Wed really because of JAnelle Monae), here’s my take. The sound sucked pretty bad. Sure, in these mega arenas, you have to expect some reduction in sound quality, but this was bad. Another problem (with the house or with management?) was that one particular cameraman was always filming about 1 foot too far to the right. This means that when P was on the mic, you’d either see his hand peeking out of the left of the screen, or some random crowd pics.
What most concerned me, though, was that the whole thing felt sort of cobbled together. I’ve long wanted P to incorporate the looseness of his aftershows into his stage productions, but this show never really took off. To be sure, there were some strong moments (Cover of Sarah McClachlan’s “Angel” was GORGEOUS!; Seeing “Old Friends for Sale” was a treat), but they were few and far between. I mean, he only played his guitar for a total of 2:30 MAX, including an aborted Purple Rain solo (Which was initially left to the sax player)…how the hell can you have Purple Rain without that guitar wail???? (to be fair, when he did start playing guitar on it, the sound sucked horribly).
Oh, and did I mention that we waited 45 minutes (my girlfriend clocked it based on her twitter feed) watching some dude sweep glitter off the stage. House lights down, sound man still at his station. All of a sudden, the house lights come up and the crown boos horribly. Now, this was after a solid 1:45-2 hour show, so a second encore would have been and extra treat. But sitting for 45 minutes with the lights out–giving every indication he’s coming back out–for nothing. Oh, apparently he did come out about 15 minute after the lights came up, after most of the people (including me) had left! I was mad enough about the 45 minute wait, but willing to let that go. But what REALLY pissed me off was the fact that he then came out.
Everybody wish me luck for Wed. My one hope is that his message is heartfelt and he’s really gonna turn it on for the next two days.

Part of the issue is that the United Center has a terrible acoustic design. First, it’s a massive concrete building, and no matter what you do, there’s going to be a ton of echo, and the large size of it means that it takes a long time for the sound to propagate back, which makes it even more noticeable.

I would have loved to see Prince, but I won’t go to see another show there. After hearing the comments, I’m glad I missed this one.

I flew in to see Prince, spent thousands on this trip with the best tickets & upgrades I could get. I’m going to the concert tonight & hope It’s better than last night… My wife & I also stood for 4 hours waiting at the aftershow. Andy Allo was great & her band was awesome! But the 20 minute show was ridiculous. I know it wasn’t princes fault it got shut down by police & it was nice to see him get personal with the crowd & tell what the situation was…”Chicago, u know how I do…. U talk to the police, I’ll play all night”…. However, I honestly feel we deserve a refund…

I paid $88 for hob tkt, got there 1030; they made us wait until 3 am to hear opening act for 20 minutes and then have prince the ripoff artist say its time to go home. Prince, you suck. Special place in hell awaits you.

He should have known better than to play at the United Center to begin with. It was built and designed to have loud crowd noise for Blackhawk games. The sound has ALWAYS been terrible there for concerts….

Poor form on Prince and DrFunk’s part for posting this. OK, appologise for the sound, but no need to name people. If anything, given that Prince runs his stuff nowdays, he should also take part of the blame.

Its EXACTLY what PERCULA said, NO ONE of the A-team caliber in their RIGHT MIND who has experience in this business wants to deal anymore with him and the PURPLE MINDFUCKING he gives people !!

….sorry to say, but for ONE, he’s OLD NEWS, second, its NOT worth turning over your life to someone who (A) hasn’t had a TRUE bonifide commercial hit in over 20 years and (B) will just treat you like shit…so, he’s left with opting for the new “bright eyed bushy tail” newbies who just happy to be there… the poor guy sort of looks like a fuzzy little squrriel..lol…bless his heart , you guys LEAVE HIM ALONE, pick on someone your OWN size PRINCE…lol….

PS: At least the people in Chicago got a great 2-hour show, which is more than can be said for those attending the Cologne show.

PPS: I think from now on I’m going to boycott your page because of the fact that you published the name and picture of the soundman, which is in very bad taste. I will no longer share any of your posts anywhere.

You should be ashamed to post the soundman picture. So lame to point someone responsible for the bad experience of yesterday when Prince and staff should react as a TEAM. Would I be him, I’d quit, this is disgusting ways.

Who did hire him in the first place anyway? If he wasn’t good, then put the blame on the recruiter instead. Everybody makes mistakes, give dude another chance and stick together instead of pointing him to public oprobe.

As if it weren’t bad enough that Prince is putting the blame on the poor soundman, you also couldn’t resist publishing his name and picture?!?
The reviews of the main show and the aftershow and your post also remind me very strongly of the show in Cologne last year which I also attended and left very disappointed. Prince has to make up his mind whom he wants to be in charge of the sound, himself or some soundman, and then live with the consequences, which might mean having to take over responsibility. Moreover, if he knows there is a curfew in the city he is plaiyng in, why does he waste time on long breaks (after one song, like in Cologne, or between the show and an encore)? All these things make me wonder whether it’s really still worth while going to a Prince concert.

The typos and errors in word choice in this message just speaks to a level of unprofessionalism. When it speaks of Prince’s management, who exactly would that be? Did they soundcheck the show properly to identify any problems in sound? And Prince–a veteran performer who has played the Chicago market for years–is surprised there is a curfew on a Monday night? 3:30 is such an unreasonable curfew, right? :eyeroll:

Sorry, P doesn’t get a pass on this, no matter how much he wants to pass the buck.

At least it’s good to know that he is planning to perform at the “afterjams.” If Prince were really sorry, he would give something (refund? transfer of tix to another night?) to those who waited all night at the House of Blues for a 30 minute set. Whatever the reason for the late start and Prince not going on were not the fault of paying patrons.

Always the same fkin shit with the sound at Prince Concerts. Here at the Cologne Concert it was the worst sound ever, 6 month ago. Years ago it was the same here in Germany. I will never visit a Prince Concert, paying 150 € for it.
Is he deaf, or why he does not hear that?

again very embarrassing. I only remember the concerts in Rotterdam and especially cologne. in cologne he was 45 minutes late (this is still normal), played a song and disappeared minutes again for 45 minutes. He was unhappy with the sound. And the audience too. Prince came back and played only 75 minutes. The sound was bad and very very disappointed the audience. Prince has indeed apologized during the concert, but the many people who came from far away, were very angry. For 150 euros per card they had expected more professionalism. I forgive him that as a hardcore fan, but many others would never go to a Prince concert. Sad, especially because he is the best performer. And now again the same in Chicago. Prince investing, please more time or money for your sound team.